Hope For Him Yet
by jai-kun
Summary: Years after the fall of Voldemort, someone still cannot come to terms with his place in the life of the Boy Who Lived...


"You prat! You forgot again, didn't you?"

The large man sitting in the flowery chair in the sitting room of #4 Privet Drive folded down his newspaper and looked with furrowed brow at his wife, who was struggling with an earring that looked out of place with the towel that was tightly clinging to her chest and covering everything down to her toes.

"Forgotten?" He blinked, once, then twice. "Forgotten what, love?"

"Only the Anniversary of the most important day in our history," she said with her eyebrows raised. She was expecting him to chuckle and tell her it was all a joke, that of course he remembered. How could he forget such an important day?"

Dudley paled, tossing the paper aside and standing. "What? Anniversary? Already? But wh–" He stopped, brow crinkling again as his wife gave him an amused, exasperated look. "Wait a moment; we celebrated our anniversary two months ago! If you wanted another present—"

An indelicate snort came from the direction of the doorway. "Dudley Darius Dursley, you know full well what anniversary I mean!" Her tone was strident, yet amused and somehow gentle, as if she were scolding a puppy for playfully chewing an old sneaker. Dudley's brow furrowed more, and he cast about, both in his mind and the living room, for the answer.

There were visible reminders everywhere Dudley looked, and he marveled at how dense he must have been to miss it. "Oh… You mean THAT Anniversary."

The toweled head of his wife peeked back through the doorway, grinning. "Yes, and I need help getting Daisy ready; she's rather excited and I'm afraid she may have an accident."

Dudley sighed, "Elly… I don't know if I should go. It's only going to be a problem, you know."

Eloise Dursley stepped into the sitting room fully dressed (though she'd never left the hall that he could tell), eyes wide, with a disappointed frown playing on her round face. "But… But Dudders, Daisy is so looking forward to it, and she'll want to meet Lily, you know…"

Dudley said nothing, opting to look out the window. Eloise came up and put her hand on his shoulder. "You're worried about seeing Harry again?"

Even after all this time, a shudder came unbidden at the mention of Harry Potter's name. Lately – in fact, for years – it was not because of fear, but shame. "People are going to see me as this… person I'm not Elly. Either they'll see me as the cousin to the Great Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived And Defeated The Dark Lord Many Many Many Times… you people and your titles, by the way…" Eloise grinned, rubbing his shoulder. "They'll see me as this heroic, awesome figure, when really I caused him nothing but grief when he was around me, or they'll see the opposite, the cruel, evil cousin who is now trying to capitalize on his success."

It was a testament of her devotion to their marriage that Eloise Dursley didn't burst out into raucous laughter then and there. As it was, she had to bury her face into his shoulder to regain composure. "Dudders," she said at last, looking up at him with a grin. "I doubt anyone will even know who you are. And you know Harry bears no grudge; after all, it was he and Ginny who introduced us at the second Anniversary…"

Dudley smiled for the first time since the conversation started, reached down and kissed her slightly-crooked nose. "Elly…"

"No, Dudley. I want you to come. Daisy wants you to come. Harry and Ginny, they also want you to come. So, please, get ready, or let me Transfigure your clothes into a nice suit, and come with us?"

Dudley looked down at her, sighed and nodded. "No magic, though. It has a tendency to… undo itself when I'm around those people…"

"Harry wouldn't—"

"Not Harry, his brothers-in-law."

"Ron wouldn't either. Hermione will keep him in line, I promise!" Eloise evidently couldn't help her mouth from quirking up, however.

"Not him, either," Dudley said scowling. "The twins."

"Ginny will keep _them_ in line, if they know what's good for them."

Dudley had to laugh, and finally waved his hand. "All right, all right, go get Daisy ready, and I'll get my suit on. I want to show Harry the big news, anyway."

Eloise squealed happily, kissed his cheek, and disappeared with a pop. Dudley could hear her upstairs, cooing at the eleven-year-old girl and telling her, excitedly, that they were all going to celebrate the demise of the Dark Lord and see Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, and Cousins Lily and James. Dudley walked to the mantle and pulled a framed letter from it, tracing the four-colored crest on the letterhead with a faint smile.

_A/N: This was written for the Anniversary Challenge. The challenge was to write a fic concerning an anniversary (not necessarily a marriage anniversary), using one of a list of phrases. This was quite a bit shorter than most of my stories, but people seemed to like it nonetheless._

_Original A/N: I am not the first to convert Dudley. However, I am the first to marry him to a witch, I think…_


End file.
